Veche

The Veche was the governing body of the Kievan Rus and many East Slavic principalities and grand duchies. A popular assembly, they held court in Kiev until 1080, when chaos gripped the Kievan Rus as it fragmented into many warring duchies. Eventually, Novgorod reunited the Rus and took Kiev and held court there, but the Mongol Empire took control of most of eastern Europe in 1241 and Kiev became the capital of the Mongol Golden Horde. The last veche died off in 1510 when the Pskov Republic ended.